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VAROTART, ALESSANDRO. 



VARRO, MARCUS TERENTIUS. 



Of his very numerous writings the earlier productions belong 

 chiefly to the romantic poetical species; his later productions are 

 chiefly devoted to history, biography, and literary criticism. As a 

 prose writer he is considered by his countrymen as among the most 

 eminent for his style, which, evidently formed on the model of 

 Gothe, is remarkable for a smoothness that gives it a marked 

 character; this however, is most noticeable in his historical works, 

 such as his 'Geschichte des Wiener Congresses' (History of the 

 Vienna Congresses) ; but in his biographies it assumes a more lively 

 and less studied air. Among his principal works we may mention 

 'Deutsche Erziihlungen ' (German Tales), 1815; 'VermischteGedichte' 

 (Miscellaneous Poems), 1816 ; ' Geistliche Spruche des Angelus 

 Silesius' (Spiritual Apophthegms of A. S.), 1822; 'Gothe in der 

 Zeugnissen der Mitlebenden' (Gothe from the Testimony of his 

 Contemporaries), 1823; ' Biographische Denkmale' (Biographical 

 Memorials) in five volumes, 1824-30 ; ' Zur Geschichtschreibung uud 

 Literatur ' (On the Writing of History, and Literature), 1833 ; ' Leben 

 des Generals Seydlitz' (Life of General Seydlitz), 1835; 'Leben des 

 Generals Winterfeldt,' 1835; 'Leben der Konigin von Preussen 

 Sophie Charlotte,' 1837 ; 'Leben dea Feldmarschalls Grafen von 

 Schweiin,' 1841; 'Leben. des Felduiarschalls Keith,' 1844; 'Leben 

 des Fiirstens Bliicher von Wahlstalt,' 1845; 'Hans von Held/ 1845; 

 and ' Denkwiirdigkeiten und vermischte Schriften' (Memoirs and 

 Miscellaneous Writings), in 7 volumes, 1843-6 ; ' Karl Muller's Leben 

 und Kleine Schriften,' 1847; 'Schlichter Vortrag an die Deutschen* 

 (A plain Statement for Germans), 1848; 'Leben des Generals Grafeu 

 Billow von Dennewitz,' 1853. He has been in addition a frequent con- 

 tributor to collections, periodical works, and to the political journals, 

 particularly to the ' Allgemeine Zeitung.' 



RAHEL ANTONIE FRIEDERIKE, the wife of the preceding, was born 

 of a Jewish family in Berlin, named Levin, or Robert, in June 1771. 

 She displayed extraordinary talents almost in her childhood, which, 

 though they were not very carefully cultivated, seemed to develope 

 themselves the more vigorously. On her father's death her mother 

 gave a frte scope to her genius, and in a short time she had assembled 

 around her a circle of the most distinguished literary men and artists 

 of her time, by whom her extraordinary abilities in conversation 

 were highly appreciated. The misfortunes of her country in 1805, 

 and the death of Prince Louis Ferdinand, for whom she had a great 

 esteem, and which was mutual, caused her much sorrow, but in all 

 the mischances of life she ever showed the most lively sympathy with 

 her surrounding associates, whether in weal or woe. During the 

 war, and also during the ravages of the cholera in Berlin in 1831, 

 she dispensed help and consolation to all within her reach. She first 

 became acquainted with her husband iu 1803, and the acquaintance- 

 ship became more intimate in 1807, but they were not married till 

 Sept. 27, 1814, after she had relinquished Judaism and become a 

 Christian. She accompanied her husband in his various missions, and 

 everywhere became the centre of an eminently intellectual conver- 

 sational circle, which was frequented by the most distinguished men 

 and women of the capital in which she happened to be, and the 

 charms of her conversational talent are described as being truly 

 extraordinary. She is said to have excited her husband to, and 

 afforded him some assistance in, his literary labours ; but she did not 

 herself aspire to the reputation of an authoress, nor give anything to 

 the press during her life. She died at Berlin on March 7, 1833, and 

 in 1834 her husband issued a selection from her writings under the 

 title of ' Rahel, ein Buch des Andenkens fur ihre Freunde ' (A Book 

 of Remembrance for her Friends) ; and in 1836 in two volumes, 

 ' Galerie von Bildnissen aus Rahel's Umgang und Briefwechsel ' (Gal- 

 lery of Portraits from Rafael's Conversations and Correspondence). 

 Both display considerable talent, with keenness and depth of obser- 

 vation, but hardly maintain the high reputation she had acquired in 

 her social intercourse. 



VAROTA'RI, ALESSANDRO, called PADOVANI'NO, a celebrated 

 painter, was born at Padua in 1590. His father Dario Varotari was 

 also a distinguished painter and an architect : he was the scholar of 

 Paul Veronese, and established a school at Padua, where he died in 

 consequence of a fall, in 1596, six years after the birth of his son, and 

 in the 57th year of his age. The instructor of Alessandro Varotari is 

 not known, but he went in 1614 to Venice, and devoted himself to the 

 study of the works of Titian : he made some copies after Titian, which 

 were remarkable for their fidelity, and acquired him a great reputa- 

 tion. In his own pictures also be displayed such a mastery over 

 many of the characteristic excellencies of Titian, that he is considered 

 to approach nearer to him than any other of his imitators, in freedom 

 of touch, in mellowness and gradation of tints, and in simplicity of 

 composition. The works of Padovanino are seldom seen out of Venice 

 and Padua. He excelled in painting women and children, but was 

 more succesful in the richness of his carnations and in his impasto 

 than in the outlines of his figures. His masterpiece is generally con- 

 sidered the Marriage at Cana, in the Academy of the Fine Arts at 

 Venice, formerly in the monastery of San Giovanni di Verdara at 

 Padua. This painter had several scholars, who painted in his style, 

 and had such facility in copying some of his works, that it is ex- 

 tremely difficult to distinguish some of the copies made by his scholars 

 from the 1 originals painted by Padovanino. He died in 1650. His 

 most distinguished scholar was Bartolomeo Scaligero. 



CHIARA VAROTARI, sister of Alessandro, was a distinguished portrait- 

 painter; her portrait, by herself, is in the Florentine Painters' Portrait 

 Gallery. She was born at Verona in 1682, and died there in 1639. 



VARRO, MARCUS TERE'NTIUS, was born at Rome in the year 

 B.C. 116, and descended from an ancient senatorial family. He was 

 instructed by L. JElius, who is spoken of as a most distinguished 

 person, and afterwards by Antiochus, an Academic philosopher. The 

 whole of his early life must have been spent iu the acquisition of 

 that prodigious learning which he afterwards displayed in his works. 

 But he did not on that account withdraw from public life altogether ; 

 for in A.D. 67 we find him at the head of a part of the fleet of Pompey 

 the Great in his war against the pirates. During the civil war between 

 Csesar and Pompey, Varro steadily adhered to Pompey, and was 

 appointed one of his generals in Spain. The western part of the 

 peninsula was placed under his especial protection, and he had two 

 legions at his command. When his colleagues had been compelled to 

 surrender, and Caesar marched westward, Varro also surrendered in 

 the neighbourhood of Corduba, and after being set at liberty he went 

 to Pompey at Dyrrachium, where he was staying at the time of the 

 battle of Pharsalua. During the absence of Cseear in Egypt, B.C. 47, 

 Antony destroyed Varro's villa near Casinum, where a great part of 

 his property was lost. After the defeat of Pompey, Varro withdrew 

 altogether from public life, and returned to Italy; and when Caesar 

 came to Rome Varro became reconciled to him, and was intrusted by 

 him with the purchasing of the books for, and the whole management 

 of, the Greek and Latin libraries, which were then established at 

 Rome. Ho now enjoyed for a few years perfect peace, and gave him- 

 self up entirely to study and the composition of several works. But 

 new troubles arose. After the murder of Caesar, in B.C. 43, Yarro, 

 then a man of upwards of seventy years of age, was put by Antony on 

 the list of the proscribed, apparently for no other reason but because 

 Varro was a staunch friend of republican freedom. Varro himself 

 escaped, as his friends concealed and protected him until the danger 

 had passed over, but his libraries were irrecoverably lost. After the 

 battle of Actium, B.C. 30, Varro again lived at Rome, and appears to 

 have been highly esteemed by Augustus, who gave him the super- 

 intendence of the library founded by Asinius Pollio. Notwithstanding 

 the great loss of books and other property which Varro had sustained, 

 his literary activity remained unabated to a very advanced age. In 

 his eighty-eighth year he was still writing. (Pliny, ' Hist. Nat.,' xxix. 

 18.) He died in the ninetieth (B.C. 27), or, according to Valerius 

 Maximus, in the hundredth year of his age. 



Varro was one of the most extraordinary men that ever lived. He 

 was certainly the most learned of the Romans ; but his learning was 

 not the learning of the closet only : he had acquired a practical 

 knowledge of men and things during bis public career, and on the 

 basis of this solid knowledge he wrote his works in the retirement of 

 his villas. There was scarcely any branch of knowledge with which 

 he was not thoroughly conversant : he was an historian, a philosopher, 

 a naturalist, a grammarian, and a poet, and in all these branches he is 

 spoken of in terms of the highest praise. Varro was for his time and 

 for the Romans what Aristotle was to the Greeks. He himself says 

 that he wrote 490 -books (' septuaginta hebdomades,' Gellius, iii. 10), 

 but all of them, with the exception of two and a few fragments of 

 others, are now lost. We shall only mention some of the more 

 important among his lost works, and then add a few remarks on those 

 still extant. 1, 'Rerum Humanarum Antiquitates Libri xxv. :' 2, 

 ' Rerum Divinarum Antiquitates Libri xvi. ;' 3, ' De Vita Populi 

 Romani,' consisting of at least eleven books ; 4, ' De Gente Populi 

 Romani Libri iv. ;' 5, 'De Initiis Urbis Romsc Liber;' 6, 'De lie 

 Publica,' consisting of at least twenty books ; 7, ' De Philosophia 

 Liber ,' 8, ' De Scenicis Originibus Libri,' of which the third book is 

 mentioned; 9, 'De Poetis ;' 10, 'De Plautinis Comcediis ;' 11, 'De 

 Bibliothecis,' &c. (See the list in Fabricius, ' Biblioth. Lat.,' i., c. 7.) 



The two extant works of Varro are on the Latin language (' De 

 Lingua Latina') and on Agriculture (' De Re Rustica'). The former, 

 of which a part only is extant, consisted originally of twenty-four 

 books, of which we now possess only books 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10; and 

 these are much mutilated and interpolated. The work was written 

 between the years B.C. 46 and 44, and was dedicated to his intimate 

 friend, M. Tullius Cicero. In the first three of the extant books Varro 

 treats tm the origin of words, and in the last three on the accidents of 

 words, such as declension and conjugation. The subject is of such a 

 nature that we cannot judge of him by it; but it is nevertheless of 

 great value on account of the philological remarks as well as various 

 historical and archaeological matters which are mentioned incidentally. 

 The first edition of ' De Lingua Latina' is that of Venice, 4to, 1498, 

 edited by Pomponius Lrotus and Rholandellus. The best among the 

 modern editions are the Bipont (2 vols. 8vo., 1788), that of Spengel 

 (Berlin, 8vo., 1826), and especially that of C. 0. Midler (Leipzig, 8vo, 

 1833). The Bipont edition contains a collection of the fragments of 

 Vai-ro's lost works. 



The work 'De Re Rustica' is complete, * and not in such bad con- 

 dition as the ' De Lingua Latina,' although ancient authors quote 

 passages from it which are not in it now. It consists of three books, 

 and is dedicated to his wife Fundania. Although Varro wrote it at 

 the age of eighty, it is, at least among the Roman works on agri- 

 culture, the best that has come down to us. It is written in the form 



